Other symbols picked by The Sun hark back to a rose-tinted, mythical yesteryear that certain progress-averse newspaper editors long for; a time when Brits carried blue passports, royals travelled by yacht and millions more people bought newspapers. For example:

- There is the coal-fired Drax power station (because pollution used to be something we could be proud of, until science came along and ruined it for everybody).

Another advertiser, the Southbank Centre, also came under pressure from consumers and confirmed it now has no future plans to advertise with the Daily Mail. These announcements mark the latest milestones for the Stop Funding Hate movement which urges brands to reconsider advertising alongside what it calls the "divisive hate campaigns" of media outlets such as the Daily Mail.

Although both brands have received a lot of public support (and more publicity than their ads would surely ever have achieved), not everybody is happy. Twitter user 'Socialists Are Morons' (probably not their real name) was fairly typical of the critics, announcing their decision to cancel an improbable number of annual trips to Center Parcs.

Another unimpressed tweeter was quick to reach for the overused "virtue signalling" card, posting: "I despise corporate virtue signaling being used to suppress freedom of expression. Centre Parcs have got this one badly wrong and they will never see another penny of my money."

MEP Steven Woolfe was another one claiming he would cancel a Center Parcs holiday over the issue and accusing the company of "virtue signalling" (again) and "damaging freedom of speech".

Freedom of Expression

To suggest Center Parcs is trying to "suppress freedom of expression" or damage "freedom of speech" is patently ridiculous. Center Parcs is a business and is perfectly entitled to choose where its ads appear and has no moral or ethical obligation to fund anybody's journalism, especially if appearing alongside that journalism becomes a PR problem for its brand.

Similarly, the Daily Mail is a business and remains free to keep publishing Littlejohn's articles and whatever other opinions it thinks it can sell for as long as it makes money from them. While well-organised public pressure from the Stop Funding Hate campaign may present advertisers with added considerations when planning their spend, they all remain free to advertise with the Mail or any other outlet if they so choose and if they think the benefits outweigh the downsides.

This is about business, not freedom of expression or the protection of freedom of speech. As long as the Mail thinks there is a lucrative market for Littlejohn's writing, he will no doubt continue to write for the paper. But if they decide he's no longer worth his sizeable salary, he won't. But even then he would still be free to express his opinions elsewhere and at no point would Center Parcs or any other business have suppressed anybody's freedom of expression.

Jan 27, 2018

On Friday the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed 2017 saw the slowest annual growth in the UK economy since 2012.

Over the year the economy grew 1.8 per cent which was slower than 2016 and each of the previous three years. Furthermore this performance leaves the UK trailing the other G7 countries. Sectors that employ a great many people, including retail and hospitality fared particularly poorly.

"Despite a slight uptick in the latest quarter, the underlying picture is of slower and uneven growth across the economy."

All of which gloominess inspired this ambitious bit of front page Brexitwashing from an over-reaching Daily Express.

Clearly the Express has a very low bar when it comes to what constitutes a "boom".

This isn't the first time the Express's 'boomometer' has needed some serious recalibration. Here are four other examples of the Express claiming a Brexit "boom" - The 'Brexitwashing' continues - including two articles based entirely on pre-Brexit economic data.

Aug 07, 2017

Channel 4’s plans to screen recordings of Princess Diana drew fierce criticism from some quarters of the UK media. The Sun, Daily Express and Daily Mail, for example, rallied behind accusations that Channel 4 had paid "grubby blood money" to obtain the tapes which represented a "shameful betrayal" and would be "incredibly hurtful for her family".

So what did these newspapers do with the details disclosed in the tapes? Did they turn their backs and ignore them out of respect for Diana and her family? Of course they didn’t.

Aug 02, 2017

For years the Daily Mail has campaigned for tougher border controls. But that hasn't stopped them crying foul as tougher border controls have inevitably resulted in queues at airports. Clearly when the Daily Mail called for tougher border controls it meant for other people, not the sort of good people who should be allowed to pass through any international border with little more than a wave of their Daily Mail and a few whistled bars of the national anthem.

Jun 10, 2017

A few short days ago the majority of UK newspapers were still trying to drag Theresa May's ailing election campaign over the finish line (albeit half-heartedly at times). But following May's disastrous performance at the polls on Thursday and her humiliating efforts to stay in Number 10, the allegiance of Fleet Street's big hitters has vanished over night.

Nobody wanted to be left holding a busted flush after the gamble had failed.

May now has neither the majority, the power nor the long-term future that will have made her of interest to the likes of Paul Dacre and Rupert Murdoch. She is an ex-Prime Minister in-waiting who embarrassed those who championed her, both with her poor performances and the nature of a hollow victory that may be secured, for now, through a 'coalition of chaos' - one of the very soundbites the papers had dutifully force fed their own readers in recent weeks.

The Daily Mail and The Sun managed to turn a blind eye to much of May's faltering throughout the campaign. On the day every other paper led with May's U-turn on social care, the Mail led with a story about pornography on Facebook while The Sun led with yet another attack on Corbyn. They no doubt thought it a wise investment at the time. But now May is feeling the wrath of newspaper editors, angry that their newest plaything was broken out of the box and perhaps also frustrated that they were unable to land an effective blow on Corbyn. Their attacks on the Labour leader were either dismissed out of hand by supporters or turned back on themselves as evidence that the likes of Dacre and Murdoch were getting worried, so maybe Corbyn was onto something.

The Sun has given May a year. That could prove generous, but if so it seems certain it is the last generosity she will receive from them.

Jun 07, 2017

Endorsements for the General Election from UK newspapers have followed fairly traditional lines. But some of the efforts have seemed at best half-hearted. In the absence of anything convincingly positive to say about the Conservatives, The Sun, Daily Mail and Express turned to all-too-predictable attacks on Labour’s leadership which looked as lazy as they were savage. Meanwhile, a more thoughtful Times was left endorsing the Conservatives with an air of ‘it’s shit but it will have to do’.

"The Conservatives have fought a poor campaign. Their manifesto includes policies lifted wholesale from Ed Miliband’s Labour platform of 2015, and a headline strategy on social care that was brave in principle but botched in practice… Mrs May has been pitched to voters as her party’s strongest asset but she has proved wooden when she needed to show charisma. She has been inflexible when she needed to think on her feet and evasive when she needed to be honest. That she is nonetheless by far the best prospective prime minister on offer speaks volumes about the choice voters must make tomorrow."

The George Osborne-edited London Evening Standard also had to dig deep into their reserves of damning with faint praise.

"The current Conservative leadership is moving further away from the social and economic liberalism that has made our country and its capital a global success story. That is the wrong direction… Thankfully, many of the impressive candidates the Conservatives are fielding know this is a mistake…

"Conservative mistakes should have been exploited by their political opponents. Indeed, the Tories would be facing near-certain defeat tomorrow if they had faced an effective force from the centre… The honeymoon enjoyed by Theresa May and her inner circle has been decisively ended by this election campaign, whatever the result… It is true that after her performance on the stump, those who wrote up Mrs May as the new political messiah find themselves embarrassed… But if she learns from this campaign to look beyond her tight inner circle, she will find a Conservative movement full of talent from which she can construct a real team."

The Telegraph couldn’t quite bring itself to champion May or the Conservatives with much conviction either, sticking to the safer territory of criticising Corbyn, while hoping, like the Standard, that May could improve for the experience. This was about the most positive thing they could find to say in support of May:

"The Conservative campaign has not been flawless and Mrs May will doubtless have learnt from the experience… It has been a long campaign and voters may be weary of hearing the refrain “strong and stable leadership”. But this is the central issue. Tomorrow’s election is principally about who the country trusts to handle the Brexit talks. A Corbyn premiership would be a calamity. Britain’s long-term interests require a convincing Conservative victory.”

This year it is the National Trust and Cadbury coming in for criticism in the media for allegedly dropping "Easter" from their annual egg hunt.

The Telegraph reports:

"The National Trust was facing a membership boycott amid a growing backlash over the decision to drop "Easter" from the name of its annual Easter egg hunt."

The Express adds:

"Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu accused [Cadbury] of "spitting on the grave" of its religious founder by removing references to Christianity's most sacred festival from the spring event it runs nationwide with the [National Trust]."

And even Theresa May has jumped on the bandwagon, telling ITV News:

"I'm not just a vicar's daughter - I'm a member of the National Trust as well. I think the stance they've taken is absolutely ridiculous and I don't know what they're thinking about. Easter's very important. It's important to me, it's a very important festival for the Christian faith...so I think what the National Trust is doing is frankly just ridiculous."

Of course, this is all nonsense, as this screenshot of the National Trust's website makes very clear.

While it may be unclear which bit of the bible mentions chocolate eggs, it's pretty clear the National Trust website definitely does mention "Easter".

Mar 22, 2017

The Daily Express has run a couple of stories this week criticising the BBC for a bias over Brexit.

Presumably the Express can't understand why the BBC doesn't run glowingly positive pro-Brexit stories like "BREXIT BOOM: London now cheapest of world's major global centres, says survey" which the Express pushed out on Wednesday.

The answer may be because the story, as presented by the Express, is nonsense. The Express has performed some remarkable mental gymnastics to turn an Economist Intelligence Unit report into a pro-Brexit story.

First of all, the Express has overlooked the methodology of the report into the worldwide cost of living. This is pretty crucial not least because the report is based on a dollar conversion. So yes, the UK is cheaper, if you are visiting from overseas.

The Express also downplays the EIU's assessment of the UK tumbling down the global league table. The EIU report states:

"2017 could see fallout from a number of political and economic shocks taking deeper effect. The UK has already seen sharp declines in the relative cost of living owing to the Brexit referendum and related currency weaknesses. In 2017 these are expected to translate into price rises as supply chains become more complicated and import costs rise. These in ationary effects could be compounded if sterling stages a recovery. Similarly, elections across the EU have created uncertainty as to whether other member states will face referendums of their own concerning EU membership. Levels of Greek debt, which were a catalyst of the euro zone debt crisis in 2012, have risen back up the global economic agenda."

Mar 18, 2017

Just when I thought 2016 had made me immune to surprise at the inexplicable twists and turns in British politics, this headline appeared:

While the Evening Standard may not be the paper it once was, it's still impossible to see how editing any kind of newspaper can be fitted around a supposedly full time job as an MP, with a constituency office 160 miles to the North. There are also some glaring conflicts of interest.

It's hard to work out who should be most offended by the connotations of this appointment: Osborne's Cheshire constituents; proper journalists or fellow politicians. The answer is probably all three.

But at least the news gave us this Twitter exchange.

In 2014 the Standard named Osborne at the top of its 'Power List' of influential Londoners. Now Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev has the Conservative MP on his payroll.

Sewell, who died in 2015, said the paper was "largely run by young and inexperienced people" and said it had lost its "authority" and "clout".

Osborne's appointment will do little to up the experience at the paper. His editorial experience to date stretches to a brief stint freelancing for the Telegraph and two unsuccessful job applications to the Economist and The Times.

Jan 12, 2017

The Daily Express has a proud tradition of getting the weather wrong. The paper's commitment to trying to scare its elderly readership with apocalyptic weather predictions is matched only by its ability to get those predictions consistently wrong.

No wonder they were so upset on Wednesday when somebody pointed out the BBC had apparently been "over-egging a weather report" and spreading ridiculous "weather panic". The Express was outraged: doesn't the BBC know that's their job?

The Express reported:

"One BBC Breakfast viewer accused the show of overly focusing on the fact London and the South East may be hit by weather conditions which the rest of Britain regularly experiences."

That's right. The Express's criticism was sparked by one viewer pointing out the BBC's weather warning may have been a touch disproportionate.

Just for good measure, the picture the Express used to illustrate how "London-centric" the BBC weather is featured Kate Kinsella from BBC London. Now, if BBC London's weather is a bit London-centric, there is probably a clue as to why in its name.

Sep 09, 2016

The Daily Mirror has deleted a tweet and a story that drew criticism late Thursday. The tweet suggested an MP crossing her legs while in shot of TV cameras in Parliament had actually been treating viewers to a "Basic Instinct" moment. The Mirror, which described the leg crossing (most likely for reasons of comfort) as "sultry", even ran pictures and a video.

People crossing and uncrossing their legs is often done to improve circulation. The Mirror perhaps took its decision to run such sexist clickbait for the same reason. However, Twitter users were quick to criticise the Mirror's voyeurism, pointing out it was creepy, sexist and offensive.

The tweet and article have since been deleted, though it seems remarkable it took the public to point out how inappropriate the comments were.

Because that’s what our ailing economy needs, a new passport cover. Granted, a lot of people won’t be able to afford foreign holidays but at least it will be a blue passport gathering dust on the shelf, not that filthy maroon muck the EU forced on us back in the 80s.

Of course there's no shortage of people willing to throw their weight behind a campaign such as this. These sorts of things inevitably prove a honeypot for publicity-starved public figures desperate to see their name in print - even if it means backing a patently ridiculous campaign.

Step forward Tory MP Andrew Bridgen who told The Sun: "A country’s passport is a symbol of its sovereignty. As we get our sovereignty back, I’m looking forward to getting my British passport back too."

Tory MEP Daniel Hannan said: "Bringing back the blue passport would symbolise that we are once again British subjects."

But the award for toadying obeisance to this distracting nonsense goes to another Tory MP, Andrew Rosindell, who hunted around in the darkest corner of his mind, perhaps where his self-respect used to be, and offered up this effort: "Having the pink European passports has been a humiliation."

And he didn’t stop there, even though he really should have done.

Rosindell doubled down with an even more ludicrous statement: "When I was first a parliamentary candidate, I was asked if I could bring in any bill what would it be — and I wanted to bring back the blue British passport."

Really. If he could change one thing about the UK, it would be the colour of his passport.

So there you have it, next time you’re having a bad day, remind yourself, it could be worse, you could be Andrew Rosindell, or one of his constituents.

Jul 27, 2016

Those newspapers who tried hard to convince their readers to vote for Brexit are now trying even harder to paint the outcome of the referendum in as positive a light as possible. And nobody is trying harder than the Daily Express. Here’s a rundown of five of its recent ‘Brexitwashing’ articles.

1. Britain BOOMS after EU vote: Ignore the doom-mongers...it’s good news all roundDaily Express, 22 July 2016Included in the Express's evidence of a "boom" was May's 2.3 per cent rise in wages, compared to May 2015. The only problem with using those figures is that the entire period was pre-referendum. Undeterred, the paper also cited rising employment through March, April and May of this year... again all of which were recorded a month before the referendum took place.

2. Britain's Brexit BOOM: UK GDP beats expectations and jumps 0.6% in second quarter of 2016Daily Express, 27 July 2016On Wednesday I predicted, over on Twitter, that the Express would try to pass off pre-Brexit economic growth figures as further proof Brexit is good for us. Sure enough the Express, Daily Mail and The Sun all duly obliged. But the 0.6 per cent growth mentioned was recorded over the course of April, May and June of this year. The Brexit result was announced on 24 June.

3. Britain's Brexit trade BOOM: USA to import UK beef for first time in 20 yearsDaily Express, 27 July 2016This story has nothing to do with Brexit and everything to do with the US lifting a 20 year ban on importing British beef that had been in place since the ‘mad cow disease’ crisis in the nineties. Obviously that didn’t stop the Express claiming this as a victory for Brexit.

4. BREXIT BOOM: UK business deals up by 800 PER CENT in month following EU ReferendumDaily Express, 25 July 2016The Express tried to pass off this story as proof that "British companies have raked in tens of billions in new deals, with an eight-fold increase in the space of one month". However, 93 per cent of the deal value stated related to just one deal – the acquisition of ARM by Japan’s SoftBank, which actually sparked fears that the declining value of sterling had made UK companies sitting ducks for overseas investors looking for bargains. As the Express even notes: "A weaker pound, in the wake of Brexit, will see more takeovers of British companies by foreign investors in the coming weeks, according to analysts." It should also be noted the ARM deal's dramatic skewing of the figures - it accounted for £24.4bn of £26.3bn in deals - means no other company could have "raked in tens of billions", as claimed in the Express's opening line.

And last, but by no means least...

5. "98% say NO to EU deal: Forget talks with Brussels and quit NOW, urges new poll"Daily Express, 25 July 2016While the headline suggests almost the entire UK is now wholeheartedly behind Brexit, it should be pointed out the poll is based on a self-selecting group of Express readers. As credible polls go, they could have asked 500 dogs about their favourite cheese and we'd still be no closer or further away from a coherent, reasoned view on when, why or how the UK should extract itself from the EU.

Jul 22, 2016

A triumphant Daily Express, which urged its readers to vote for Brexit, is claiming the decision to leave the EU has already provided a welcome boost to the UK economy in the shape of soaring house prices and a bumper month of loans from mortgage providers (right).

"Banks and building societies recorded their strongest figures for the month of June for eight years as they handed over £20.7bn of home loans."

The Express’s sources are lending data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders and house price data from Hometrack, both of which the Express claims reveal a post-Brexit boom.

"The great Northern cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds – where millions of people voted Leave in June’s referendum to exit the EU – are leading the way," reports the Express.

For the record, it should be noted Manchester (60.4%), Liverpool (58.1%) and Leeds (50.3%) all voted by a majority to Remain and Leave voters across the three cities totalled 357,566, rather than the “millions” the Express claims. But let’s not worry about that. The greater deception here is that the data relates to money released to borrowers during June – but typically applied for and even approved weeks or months earlier - meaning the outcome of the EU referendum, announced on 24 June, will have had no bearing on the data.

Even then, the data is not necessarily a sign of universal confidence among home owners, even before the result was known. As the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ (CML) press release - from which the Express cherry-picked the headline figures - points out, a lot of lending is being driven "more by remortgaging and less by house purchases".

In fact, CML's press release also cautions that "the result of the EU referendum is likely to affect the housing market", citing "considerable uncertainty" and "buyers and sellers [waiting] to get a clearer idea of where we might be headed".

And what about the soaring house prices? Those claims are based on a year-on-year comparison with June 2015. So again, the Hometrack data relates almost entirely to life before Brexit. And, as with the CML data there are actually reasons to be cautious. While the year-on-year figures look healthy there were signs of a slow-down month-on-month across the country.

As Hometrack itself notes, in less bullish terms than the Express:

“It is still very early days to assess the true impact of the EU referendum vote on activity and house prices. Hometrack's view…remains that sales volumes are likely to slow and price growth will moderate over the second half of the year.”

It seems the Express is clutching at straws in an effort to paint Brexit in a positive light.

"To suggest that a journalist is incapable of reporting on a terrorist outrage because of the colour of her skin, her religion or the clothes that she wears says all you need to know about the contemptible views of Kelvin MacKenzie. His feigned moral outrage is the language of racial hatred and bigotry."

"This divisive column which again is an attempt to "other" the Muslim community may sell a few papers but the consequences are felt by ordinary people in Britain who are the victims of daily tragic incidents of hate crime… Journalists should be held accountable for …writing which simply perpetuates stereotypes, demonises and attempts to hold a whole community accountable for the actions of an individual. It’s this kind of ‘respectable’ racism which feeds the far right and legitimises the fallout we have all too sadly seen on our streets in recent weeks."

Even at The Sun it seems there were some who had second thoughts about MacKenzie's article. A tweet publicising the piece disappeared shortly after the backlash began.

"Why did Channel 4 have a presenter in a hijab fronting coverage of Muslim terror in Nice?"

The answer is that the journalist in question, Fatima Manji, works for Channel 4 News and was due to be working that evening. So she did. It's pretty simple really and Mackenzie, grudgingly, acknowledges this in typically snide fashion.

"So why did they do it? The suggestion is that Ms Manji...had been rostered on some time ago and presumably the C4 twerps felt to remove her would cause a bigger row."

In 2015 The Sun misrepresented research findings to suggest a fifth of British Muslims are jihadi sympathisers.

Mackenzie went on to imply Manji's involvement in reporting this story was somehow too close for comfort:

"Was it appropriate for [Manji] to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim?".

However, he might try to justify it, Mackenzie is not only making a gross generalisation about Muslims, he is also suggesting Manji should have been prevented from doing her job because of her religion.

What's more, Mackenzie is so outraged he suggests not only should Manji have been kept off air but so should her employer. "It is coverage like this that raises a question mark over the future of Channel Four," wrote Mackenzie, adding he hopes "the new Culture Secretary [gets rid of the broadcaster]".

At this point, it should be noted there is some bad blood between Channel 4 News and Kelvin Mackenzie. Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News famously confronted Mackenzie over the lies he published about Hillsborough while editor of The Sun.

Jul 07, 2016

Tony Blair is all over the front pages of the newspapers following the revelations of the Chilcot report. One headline stands out more than most. This from The Times:

While Blair's role in taking Britain to war in the Middle East was decisive and will remain his legacy, he was far from the only one intent on war back in 2003.

The Times' own proprietor Rupert Murdoch was also keen, as The New York Times noted at the time in an article entitled "Mr Murdoch's War":

"On the first day of the war with Iraq, Rupert Murdoch watched the explosions over Baghdad on a panel of seven television screens mounted in the wall of his Los Angeles office, telling friends and colleagues over the phone of his satisfaction that after weeks of hand-wringing the battle had finally begun...[He] has made no secret of his opinions. ''We can't back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam," Mr. Murdoch told the Bulletin, an Australian magazine... ''Bush is acting very morally, very correctly,'' he said. ''The greatest thing to come of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country.''"

Although some may question Alastair Campbell's impartiality, or reliability where this particular subject is concerned, there were also claims in the former spin doctor's diary that Murdoch was putting pressure on Tony Blair to go to war.

"Implacable support"

At the World Economic Forum in 2007. Murdoch was asked directly whether his media empire had tried to use its influence to shape attitudes towards the war. Murdoch replied: "We've tried. We've basically supported - our papers and television - I would say supported the Bush policy."

More recently, at the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 we heard Tony Blair spoke to Murdoch several times leading up to the start of the war. Paul Dacre, editor of rival newspapers to Murdoch's, also shared his personal opinion with Leveson that Blair could not have gone to war without the "implacable support" of Murdoch and his papers.

Jun 30, 2016

The Daily Mail has thrown its support behind Theresa May in the Conservative leadership contest, which might make things a little awkward between the Mail's bosses and one of their star columnists Sarah Vine ("aka Mrs Michael Gove"):

The Daily Mail backed Brexit throughout the referendum campaign but clearly still feels the pro-Remain Theresa May is a better bet than the Leave campaign's Michael Gove.